Two teenagers were forcibly taken and stabbed before being coerced to dig their own graves in a forest during a frightening abduction, which authorities suspect could be tied to drug-related conflicts.
The two victims, aged 14 and 16, were abducted on the evening of January 2 from a hotel parking lot in Carquefou, a suburb near Nantes, by a group of masked individuals. Witnesses observed the teenagers being forced into a car, but when law enforcement arrived promptly, there was no sign of the victims or the vehicle.
Around 3:00 am, a resident of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, approximately ten kilometers away, discovered the injured boys at his doorstep. Both youths were visibly harmed, showing bloody faces, cut fingers, and signs of extreme distress. One of them had sustained a stab wound to the thigh. The resident immediately alerted the authorities and administered first aid before the victims were transferred to Nantes University Hospital for medical care.
According to the victims’ accounts to investigators, they were taken to a nearby forest, confined in a car trunk, and subjected to brutal physical abuse. The perpetrators stripped them, assaulted them, and made death threats. They also allegedly held a gun to their heads and coerced them to dig a hole with their hands, potentially intended as their burial site. Subsequently, law enforcement located the described area, uncovering the victims’ discarded clothes and the dug-out pit.
Antoine Leroy, the public prosecutor of Nantes, confirmed the initiation of an inquiry into charges of kidnapping, unlawful detention, and violent acts. Local criminal investigators suspect that the assault could be connected to disputes within the drug trade, possibly stemming from territorial disagreements among traffickers.
The younger victim, originally from Angers, had reportedly been evading capture for several months prior to the abduction. Both teenagers provided statements to the authorities, although they were hesitant to divulge detailed information about the incident.
The investigation is currently under the direction of Nantes’ gendarmerie research unit. Prosecutor Leroy mentioned that progress has been made in identifying the culprits behind the violent abduction, but no arrests have been made as of now.